Chapter 96
_The Battlefield_.
Truth crushed to earth shall rise again: The eternal years of G.o.d are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his wors.h.i.+ppers.
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.
_Marco Bozzaris_.
Strike--for your altars and your fires; Strike--for the green graves of y our sires; G.o.d, and your native land!
One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die.
_On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake_.
Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days; None knew thee but to love thee, Nor named thee but to praise.
_Burns_.
Such graves as his are pilgrim-shrines, Shrines to no code or creed confined-- The Delphian vales, the Palestines, The Meccas of the mind.
CHARLES SPRAGUE.
_Curiosity_.
Lo, where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.
Through life's dark road his sordid way he wends, An incarnation of fat dividends.
_Centennial Ode_.
Stanza 22.
Behold! in Liberty's unclouded blaze We lift our heads, a race of other days.
_To my Cigar_.
Yes, social friend, I love thee well, In learned doctor's spite; Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, And lap me in delight.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
_A Psalm of Life_.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, "Life is but an empty dream!"
For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting.
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.
Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
_The Light of Stars_.